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Eating meat: some say we've evolved to do it. It's in our DNA. It's how we got our big brains. Yet others, including Pythagoras in the 6th century BC, and even Dr. Frankenstein's "monster", have argued that eating meat is bad for our bodies, cruel to animals, and toxic to the planet. Now -- perhaps more than ever -- clear-cut answers can be hard to come by when it comes to the matter of meat. Kevin Ball serves up the arguments.

It's never been easier to banish the feeling of boredom -- at least for a moment. But some fear our weapons of mass distraction could lead to an epidemic of ennui and ADD. Contributor Peter Mitton examines boredom and discovers a little-understood universal state of mind. From its obvious downsides and unexpected upsides, to its evolutionary origins and the way it's shaping our future -- boredom is anything but dull.

Donald Trump has been called a buffoon, an entertainer, a circus clown. He's also been called a fascist. But he's aiming to called Mr. President. What does the Trump campaign, and the voters it's mobilized, have in common with Fascism, not only in Europe but in America's own dark past?

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He was a brilliant, eccentric, complicated man; a colonial policeman, a critic and journalist, a dishwasher, a fighter in the Spanish civil war, a teacher and a shopkeeper - and one of the most influential writers of our time. His name was Eric Blair, better known as George Orwell. Who was the man who gave us 'big brother', 'thoughtcrime', 'doublethink', whose name looms so large in this era of mass surveillance? More
Apr 11, 1:33 PM ET readcommentsaudio

Past Episodes

People have reported "near death experiences", or NDE's, over centuries and across cultures. The nature of them has historically been the territory of religion and philosophy. But now science has staked its claim in the discussion. And the questions the research asks are profound: where is consciousness produced, in the brain, or somewhere else? Can consciousness continue to exist even after the heart and brain have stopped working?

When Marina Nemat was 16 and living in Tehran, she was arrested at gunpoint and sentenced to life in Iran's most notorious prison, where she was repeatedly tortured and assaulted. She now lives just north of Toronto, and argues that the best way to combat evil in the world is through small acts of kindness. She delivered the 2016 International Issues Discussion series lecture at Ryerson University in Toronto.

There were two momentous anniversaries in 2016 involving giants of English-language literature -- authors whose work influenced not just the literature that followed in their wake, but the language itself. On this edition of The Enright Files, we mark the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare and the 100th anniversary of James Joyce's great novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

It's tempting to think that in order to comprehend the future, we need to know the past, that there are always lessons in history. But is that true anymore? And has the future ever looked like the past? Sailing in the 21st century, perhaps we are in uncharted waters.

He was a brilliant, eccentric, complicated man; a colonial policeman, a critic and journalist, a dishwasher, a fighter in the Spanish civil war, a teacher and a shopkeeper - and one of the most influential writers of our time. His name was Eric Blair, better known as George Orwell. Who was the man who gave us 'big brother', 'thoughtcrime', 'doublethink', whose name looms so large in this era of mass surveillance?

Emma Vossen’s love of gaming started when she was a kid growing up in small-town Ontario. Now as a PhD candidate at the University of Waterloo Games Institute, she looks to gamer culture as a microcosm of how sexism is seeded and replicated within broader society, and she draws connections between gamer culture and the rise of the political extreme right.